


i'm feeling okay this morning / you know we're on the road to paradise

by bigembarrassingheart



Category: Twin Peaks
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, only sort of because i have a bad memory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:21:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28183071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigembarrassingheart/pseuds/bigembarrassingheart
Summary: what if we were investigating a murder and my boss assumed we were dating forcing us to realise we were actually in love with each other, and we're both boys.
Relationships: Dale Cooper/Harry Truman
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34





	i'm feeling okay this morning / you know we're on the road to paradise

The last day before Gordon Cole left Twin Peaks, he and Dale were the last people to leave the station, as they had spent many hours pouring over evidence and discussing the case.

But finally, around ten pm, they decided to call it a night. As they walked to their cars, Gordon turned to Dale and said—well, screamed in his trademark hard of hearing style—something shocking.

“SO, HOW LONG HAVE YOU AND SHERIFF TRUMAN BEEN SEEING EACH OTHER?” he asked.

“What?”

“DON’T THINK YOU’RE THE ONLY BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT IN TWIN PEAKS, COOP. NORMALLY I’D REMIND YOU OF THE IMPORTANCE OF PROFESSIONALITY, BUT I KNOW YOU HAVE A HARD TIME LISTENING TO ME.”

And with that, Gordon vanished into the night, leaving Dale to return to the Great Northern quite confused.

The next day at work, Dale found Harry in the conference room. They exchanged greetings, before drinking coffee and eating doughnuts in silence for a few minutes. Then, Dale chewed, swallowed, and spoke. 

“Gordon said the strangest thing to me last night.”

“Oh? Does he have a theory about the case?” asked Harry.  
“No, it was nothing like that. He asked how long you and I had been seeing each other.”

“What do you mean, seeing each other?”

“As in denoting romantic involvement.”

“Well, what would he say that for?”

“He is a master of body language.”

Harry considered this for a moment. “What did you say when he said that?”

“I didn’t say anything. Before I got a chance to, he just disappeared.”

Dale paused for a moment. “The man’s an enigma. He taught me everything I know.”

Harry smiled, and Dale smiled too. It brought him comfort to know that Harry was the kind of man not to let a friendship be destroyed by accusations of homosexuality.

“Huh.” Harry said. “Well, that is strange.”

“Agreed.”

As the day went on, the conversation slipped from Dale’s mind. The murder of Laura Palmer was a hard case, one of the hardest he had ever worked on. Sometimes he felt like it would be the end of him. 

So, with all the work to do, there were no personal matters on Dale’s mind until night, when he recorded his daily message to Diane from his room at the Great Northern.

After going over the new details of the case, he stopped, ready to end the recording. But, he realised he had more to say.

“Diane? There’s something else on my mind. Yesterday, Gordon Cole told me he thought I and Sheriff Truman were romantically involved. He’s obviously wrong, but I know from personal experience that body language almost never lies. Perhaps he saw something that neither of us have noticed?”.

He fiddled with a pen on his desk, and sighed. “Goodnight, Diane.” 

He turned off the tape, and went to bed. 

-

Harry was usually good at doing work while at work, not letting himself get distracted and bogged down by less important things. But today, there was something on his mind.

It had always amazed Harry how easily Dale could look at two people and determine their romantic history. And he had thought Ed and Norma were doing a pretty good job keeping their relationship under wraps.

So then he had started evaluating his own relationship with Dale. Neither of them mentioned what Gordon had said, and they were acting normally, but Harry had started to notice things. Like, how close together they would stand. He didn’t mind, he liked being close to his friend, but it had started to make him wonder about love.

Later that day, after returning to the station from the drive where he and Dale saw Leland driving erratically, Harry approached Hawk, likely the only happily in love resident of Twin Peaks. 

“Hey, Hawk. Can I ask you a weird question?”

“Uh, sure.”

“How did you know you were in love with your girlfriend?”

Hawk smiled, laughed, and leaned in closer to him to respond.

“Well, you could say it was love at first sight. The moment I met her, I thought she was the most interesting and beautiful woman I had ever seen. I wanted to be around her all the time. But I knew it was real love when I still felt that way, and even more.” 

Harry nodded solemnly, considering this.

“So, what is it? A special lady on your mind?”

“Something like that.”

Harry thought about this driving home at the end of the day. He remembered meeting Dale for the first time, and how he had felt like he had never known someone like him before.

He thought about how it felt to work beside him everyday, seeing his intelligence and kindness. He thought about Dale’s smile, and how softly he moved through the most difficult parts of life. And then he thought that he probably had a lot more thinking to do. 

-

Dale was feeling similarly that day. He was sitting at his desk and watching Harry talk to Hawk.

Ever since they met, Dale had found himself impressed by Harry’s strong and gentle leadership, and his friendliness even while being in a position of power.

And, since they had first met, Dale had considered Harry to be a dear friend. But ever since that conversation with Gordon, something was different. 

He had never found long-lasting happiness in his romantic relationships, for a variety of reasons. But now, Dale was thinking there could be another reason.

It made him feel scared. Not just the idea that he could be gay, but the memory of the woman he loved, dying in his arms because of his own mistakes, and the possibility of the same thing happening to Harry, the man he cared for so deeply.

Later that day, he walked into the foyer of the station, and saw Andy and Lucy talking. He smiled. At least, no woman had ever broken up with him for not owning a sports coat.

“I just don’t know what you see in him, Lucy. He’s not a nice person.” Andy was saying.

“Dick is a nice person, and he is refined.”

Andy started to reply, but she cut him off. “Which is more than I can say about you!”

Lucy noticed Dale standing there. “Is there anything I can help you with, special agent Cooper?” she asked, still glaring at Andy as he turned and walked away.

“Yes, have I gotten any calls?”

“Yes, one from Sheriff Truman. He said it wasn’t urgent, but to call him back when you had the chance.”

“Thank you, Lucy. And may I ask, are you doing alright?”

“What?”

“Well, with-” he nodded to Andy, watching them awkwardly from the end of the hall, “-and everything.”

“Oh! Yes I am, thank you for asking. But I just wish he would leave me alone.”

“It must be hard, working together.”

“Yes, it is. When we first started seeing each other, I thought the job would break us up, you know, like in the movies. But it wasn’t working together that was the problem, it was his personality.”

“Well, Lucy, I wish you all the best with it.”

“Thank you.”

Once Dale was back in his office, he called Harry.

“Sheriff Harry S. Truman.” Harry said.

“Hello, Sheriff, it’s Cooper. Lucy said you called earlier?”

“Yeah, uh, I gotta talk to you about something.”

“Okay, where are you? I’ll meet you.”

“No, it’s not, uh, official police business. I’ll stop by tonight at the Great Northern.”

“Okay, then. Goodbye, Harry.”

Dale hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair, doing one of his favourite hobbies: pondering. 

What did Harry want to talk to him about? A few possibilities came to mind, none more likely than the others.

And then there was the tiniest hint of a thought, barely articulated into words, about why Harry wanted to meet him. He tried to disregard it. Harry was a logical man, like himself, and it just didn’t make sense.

But then he started to think. Was that what he wanted the meeting to be about? Would that be the answer to his problems?

Dale sighed. He needed to stop thinking about love and romance. He had a murder to solve, goddamnit! He could think about his personal life later, but right now he had work to do. 

-

Harry was driving back to the station when he got a call from Dale.

“Harry, it’s time. Meet me at the Roadhouse.”

“Be there in ten.”

He tightened his grip on the steering wheel as his hands started to sweat. Dale had better know what he was doing, or it was going to end badly for everyone. 

Once at the Roadhouse, he stood back and watched Dale do his thing. He was nervous for a couple different reasons. He still felt like he was making a mistake asking to meet Dale. 

And as he stood outside the interrogation room, listening to Leland, or Bob, technically, howl in pain and rage, he thought maybe this was fate intervening, telling him he was doing the wrong thing.

Harry never used to believe in fate and all that nonsense, but things were different now. They had been ever since special agent Dale Cooper had arrived in Twin Peaks.

He watched Leland, lying crumpled on the floor, and perhaps finally free. He watched Dale, holding him in his arms and gently whispering to him, and as Leland finally started to die, he started to cry. 

After all the mayhem that comes with solving a crime like that, it wasn’t until after four in the morning that they could finally go home.

So, Harry and Dale stood silent in the parking lot, neither waiting to make the first move. 

“I gave everyone tomorrow off.” Harry said.

“Good. They deserve it.”

“You deserve it, too.” 

Dale looked at him, and he didn’t know what he wanted to do. 

“I’m sorry we couldn’t have our meeting.” 

“That’s okay.” Harry said. God, he was tired.

“Come by tomorrow.”

“I will.”

They continued standing there, staring into darkness. Harry took a deep breath, and spoke.

“See you tomorrow. Good work.”

He turned to go, but the sound of Dale’s voice, quiet and uncharacteristically shaky, stopped him in his tracks.

“Wait.” he said.

“What is it?”

“Sorry, it’s just, I don’t want to be alone right now,” he stammered.

Something changed inside of Harry. “Oh, yeah, of course. You wanna come over to my place?”

Dale nodded, and they walked off together.

Driving home, Harry had to keep reminding himself to keep his eyes on the road, the roads he had known his whole life but somehow never noticed before.

Despite his attempts, Harry kept glancing over at Dale, his hair still slightly damp from the sprinklers. As they rounded a corner, he began to cry.

“Are you okay?” Harry asked.

“No, but I don’t want to talk about work right now.” He made no attempt to wipe his tears away, just let them fall.

“Understood,” Harry said, pulling into his driveway.

“Tell me about what it was like growing up in Twin Peaks,” Dale said as they walked to his door.

“Okay.” Harry unlocked the door, and they slipped inside. He turned on the lights, watched Dale settle into an armchair.

“I, uh, I guess I was bored by it, when I was young. I felt like everyone was perfect, everyone except me.”

He sat down. “And I was sick of seeing the same people and the same things every day. I wanted change so badly, I dreamt so much of moving away.”

“Did you?”

“No, not really. Now I love what I used to hate. I like knowing everyone, I like the routine. And now that Twin Peaks is finally changing, it terrifies me.”

Dale nodded.

“What about you?” Harry asked.

“What about me?”

“What was growing up like for you?”

“There’s not much to say about it.”

“Did you ever dream of moving away?”

“No, I wanted a hometown, like you had.”

“They say people always want what they don’t have.”

“I hope one day we can all be content.”

Through the window behind Dale, Harry could see the sun was starting to rise.

“Would you look at that.”

Dale turned to look.

“What time is it?”

Harry glanced at his watch. “A little after five.”

“Would you look at that.”

Harry smiled. “You wanna go to bed, get some rest?”

“I like the sound of that.”

They stood up, and Dale followed Harry down the hall to his bedroom.

“I’ve only got the one bedroom,” he offered. 

“That’s fine by me.”

“Let me get you some pajamas and a toothbrush.”

“Harry, you are an excellent host.” 

Later that morning, while lying in bed with Dale—not too close, but not too far—Harry fell into a tense but deep sleep, dreaming of the face of the man lying next to him. 

-

Dale awoke with a start at eight am to the sounds of Harry getting up and getting ready for work. He watched him through eyes he could barely keep open.

“Sorry for waking you. I gotta go in, hold down the fort.”

“That is very noble of you.”

“Let me drive you to the Great Northern?”

“You got any coffee first?”

“You got it.”

Dale got dressed, folding Harry’s pajamas. He was watching himself in the mirror when Harry knocked on the door. 

“That’s a damn fine cup of coffee,” he declared, feeling better already.

“I learned from the best.” They smiled at each other, feeling renewed in the new light of the morning.

When they arrived at the Great Northern, the sound of the waterfall thrumming in their ears, Dale turned to Harry.

“Take it easy today. Don’t be too hard on yourself. I should know.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself either.”

“See you at nine, okay?”

“Okay.” 

When Dale got to his room, he knew he had to make a tape for Diane, but for once he didn’t care. He was just so tired. So, he lay down atop the sheets and fully dressed, and immediately fell asleep. 

He woke up an indeterminate amount of time later to someone knocking at his door. He stood up, somehow feeling worse than before, and opened the door to reveal the elderly waiter who seemed to haunt him.

“Yes?”

“It is eight o’clock. It is time to get ready.”

The waiter gave Dale a thumbs up, which he reciprocated, and then vanished.

As he showered and dressed for his meeting with Harry, Dale wondered how the waiter knew his social calendar.

Well, no matter, without that knock on the door he likely would have slept right through the appointment. 

At ten minutes to nine, Dale headed to the hotel lobby. As he descended the stairs, he saw Harry waiting for him, and even through his nerves and exhaustion, he smiled. 

He felt strangely as he walked to Harry. A mixture of both nerves and total happiness, of a couple in a romantic comedy running to each other and just two friends spending time together.

“How’d it go today?” he asked Harry.

“Oh, fine. Felt like the old days.”

“So, break the suspense. What’d you want to talk to me about?”

“Yeah, uh, it’s not serious, but it is sorta important. You wanna go up to your room?”

“Whatever you say, Harry.”

They made their way back the way he had come. There were things Dale knew he had to say, about Laura Palmer, and his future in Twin Peaks, but he couldn’t bring himself to talk about them. Not yet.

Back in his room, they stood still, nervously staring at each other.

“You know,” Harry started, “I wish I didn’t meet you because something horrible happened, but I’m glad I met you.”

“My sentiments exactly. Harry, you are a dear friend.” 

Harry smiled, and the briefly quieted nerves were back. It felt like there was so much space between them, both literally and figuratively. 

“I’ve been thinking about something the last few days, and I’ve been having a hard time putting it into words, but I want to say it,” Harry said, swallowing. 

“Don’t worry about it. I want to hear what you have to say.” It felt like there was a rope pulled tight around Dale’s neck, choking him.

He felt like maybe he knew what Harry was going to say, he felt like maybe he had no idea at all, he felt like maybe he knew what he wanted Harry to say.

“I guess the beginning is that I’ve been thinking about what Gordon Cole said to you.”

The rope slackened. “I’ve been doing the same thing.”

Harry laughed, a short bark of relief. “Well, that’s good to know.” Dale smiled, the act of finding yourself to be the same as somebody else.

“To put it simply, it made me start thinking about our friendship, and how much it means to me, and how much I care about you.”

The words hung in the air, and Dale wished he had his tape recorder. He breathed in slowly, tried to put his words in order.

“I care about you too, Harry. You’re the most honest, noble, and hardworking person I’ve ever met.”

He saw Harry’s eyes soften, and hoped his eyes were doing the same. 

“Um, what I’m trying to say is, what if he was right? What if there was this thing between us, and neither of us noticed it?”

Harry stopped, ran a hand through his hair. He was beautiful. 

“So, uh, what do you think?” he mumbled.

Dale started to smile, for the countless time that evening. “I think that he was right.”

He watched Harry react to his words, watched a grin spread over his face. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Harry moved towards Dale, and kissed him. For once, he didn’t think about anything, for at least a few seconds. And then, he thought about how great it felt to do something completely different from everything else he had ever done. 

He felt Harry’s hands on his face, and wrapped his arms around him. Dale kissed the corners of his mouth, and learned what it felt like to have Harry kiss his temples.

He let himself sink into the kiss, let it overpower him, before pushing Harry against the wall, and running his hands through his hair like he realised he had always wanted to do. 

Much later that night, they lay in Dale’s bed, and even while wide awake he felt more well rested than he had in years, feeling like maybe all could be right in the world.

“You were very brave today,” he whispered, bringing Harry’s hand to his mouth and softly kissing his fingertips.

Harry turned to face him. “I’m so glad I did it.”

“Me too.”

As Dale slowly sank into sleep, he finally felt ready to face the new world.


End file.
